This made me smile

I can't entirely decide where I stand, when it comes to Hillary Clinton - part from quite a lot of woman-to-woman admiration for her toughness and resilience.

But I do know that this piece of political merchandise, or whatever this particular product category is called, is hilarious (get it?)...

You can buy right here, in the Hillary for America Shop...!!

Fabric Art by Martine Myrup

I am blown away by the work of this lady. 

She is the Danish textile artist Martine Myrup, and she has chosen a method, for creating most of her strikingly beautiful pieces (she works in many fields, but these words will focus on her work with re-used fabric); she rummages thrift shops, flea markets and garage sales for old men's shirts, aprons, tattered bed linens, table cloths - well you know: those things you find in heaps, and for next to nothing, sometimes.

Then she creates these incredibly sophisticated garments and objects, with painstaking care and craft.

Explore her blog, where she often shows steps of the process, starting with the original thrifted garments and scraps, and ending up with some very surprising designs. Her blog is called Elusive Owl.

I borrowed all these images from Martine's blog, and you can also follow her interesting work on Facebook and Instagram.

Pillows must be a special love for her; she has made so many, and her awesome patchwork skills really shows, when she turns a couple of nondescript old men's shirt into these:

The pillow above (which is made from some rather plain gingham pattern cloth, by the way), she also shows seen from the backside, and that is almost as beautiful as the front (the true mark of an excellent seamstress):

Another specialty of Martine's is her urns (see also the first two images).

This one is made from a ladies blouse, and the not-so-interesting floral print, becomes so elegant, in this delicate 3D object. Check out how she saves a color detail for the bottom of the urn!

And see what becomes of this lovely old peach and blue embroidered table cloth, when she gets her hands on it.

A sleek, stripey pillow - and the most adorable little Christmas ornaments from the leftover square embroidered details.

A piece of sound advice

We are all going to a big christmas lunch later today, and I am lopsided with stress right now. 

So here is a piece of sound advice for myself, and probably also for many others, I imagine. 

It comes from an old darling of mine, Subversive Cross Stitch, and I see that she (Julie Jackson, who came up with the wonderful and silly idea of x-rated cross stitch embroidery kits) writes that they have a ten year anniversary this year, wow. Sometimes it is actually possible to come up with a new and refreshing twist on something old and tired.

The one below is one of my all time favourites. If I actually followed this universal bit of good advise, maybe I would have the patience to even embroider it, as well. Well, some day, perhaps. 

Not today, that's for sure...